AskCVV #7 - MITB Predictions, Forbidden Door Thoughts, Advice For Aspiring Creators, Being A Girl Dad

I loved your interview with LA Knight, YEAH, how would you feel if Logan Paul won Money in the Bank? 

“That's a very interesting question, because I feel like leading into this it was like man the odds on favourite to win this is for sure LA Knight. In fact, you can put your money where your mouth is mybookie.ag use the code CVV you'll get an additional 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit but he's the odds on favourite if you want to make a little bit of money on this my bookie.ag. Of course the promo code is CVV, nice little plug there thank you for supporting the show. But I feel like it seemed like Damian Priest could make sense to win that match with what happened this week and then Logan Paul thrown into the equation is like Well, yeah, there's a lot of eyes on Logan Paul. But to answer your direct question, how would I feel if Logan Paul won? I would feel surprised because I still believe that this is LA Knight’s game, YEAH. I feel like LA Knight should be the one winning this match. He is so organically hot and so organically over going into this. And if you think about it, LA Knight not even officially a babyface. LA Knight is like technically on paper, a heel, and he's getting the biggest crowd reactions in WWE. So he is the biggest babyface in terms of the reactions that he's getting. WWE would be making a massive mistake if LA Knight doesn't win the men's Money in the Bank ladder match. I would have to guess if we're going to take it one step beyond this and assume that he does win on Saturday, I just think that unfortunately, they make him cash in on Seth Rollins, which is great. Like, Eli Drake was a world champion in IMPACT Wrestling and a lot of people forget that. A lot of people say man LA Knight deserves deserves a world title. Well, LA Knight has won a title as Eli Drake. So I feel like LA Knight should I mean, the Roman Reigns [match], LA Knight would actually be a really interesting match. Big heel versus massive babyface put them together. Obviously, you'd have to switch over. But I mean, just that would. That would make so much sense. I don't know if that's going to happen. I feel like it's going to be him and Seth, but give LA Knight the briefcase and let him cook." 

What did you think of Forbidden Door? And what was your favorite match?

“Forbidden Door top to bottom was just such a great card stacked card from top to bottom. And last year, I was so excited about the concept of Forbidden Door. Because it's funny to think it wasn't that long ago, when AEW people wrestled in AEW, IMPACT people wrestled in IMPACT and New Japan people wrestled in New Japan. And when they opened up that forbidden door when first it was IMPACT in AEW and vice versa. Then they opened up again with New Japan. That was like, Oh my gosh, we've got all these dream matches that are possible now. And forbidden door last year was solid. But I don't think it gave us any of those like, oh my god matches, like any of those, like, what would happen if this person took on this person? But that's what we saw this year. And there were just so many great matches top to bottom. To answer the question of what was your favorite match? I think it's pretty obvious there. Kenny Omega and Will Osprey stole the show. And if you listen to my interview with Will Ospreay, I'm a fan of the work that he does. So I feel like it was just such a great chance for fans that live in the United States and North America, because obviously this took place in my hometown in Canada, in Toronto. It was just a great opportunity. Because I think there's a lot of people who haven't, who are aware of Will Ospreay, and maybe they've seen some of his clips on Instagram or Tiktok or Twitter or YouTube. But I don't think there's a lot of people in North America that have seen a full Will Ospreay match. So this was such a great introduction to who Will Ospreay is and what he's all about. So that match was so so good. And I don't know how they're gonna top it, that's a clear contender for match of the year if you asked me.”

Who’s your favorite guest so far this year?

“It's been a really good year. It's been such a great year so far and we are officially at the halfway mark here which is crazy. But I would say that my favourite guest this year has been The Undertaker. And it's gonna be tough to top The Undertaker because that's an interview that I'd wanted to do for years. I mean, when you think of the all time greats in the WWE, The Undertaker is one of the names that immediately pops into your head. And I didn't just get him for like, two minutes or five minutes, we talked for like 20, whatever it was, 23, 24 minutes. So a great conversation with someone who is so humble for everything that he's accomplished. So humble. And you heard at the end of that interview, you listen to it, he goes, I would love to do another one with you. And I said, Well, let's do the next one in person. And he says, Absolutely, I'm a man of my word. So maybe that means The Undertaker can be episode number 500. Could we make that happen? I guess we'll see, but that would be really tough on to top. So The Undertaker is definitely up there. I would love to do the next one in person. So let's see.”

I saw on Instagram that you've already seen the new Mission Impossible movie. What did you think of it? 

“It's true. I went to a screening on Tuesday of this week of Mission Impossible. Dead Reckoning part one. And first of all, it was so cool to be able to see that at the Paramount Lot in Hollywood. It was good. And the review embargo does not lift until July 5. So I can't give you a full review of everything that happens in the film. I'll say it's good, but it's not great. And I hate to say that. I liked it, but I didn't love it. Don't get me wrong, the action is insane. The stunts, you've seen the motorcycle stunt. And if you haven't, Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle off of a cliff, and then base jumps off of the motorcycle as it's falling. That's just crazy. And the way that they work that into the narrative of the film is so impressive. That's badass, there's actually a train sequence and a stunt they do on the train, which I think is actually a more impressive stunt, and like a bigger set piece for the movie. All that is so good. The storyline being centred around AI, and this thing that can see and hear you at all points in time. But they've got to track this down, it's just a bit silly. And there were my friend Kristian Harloff, who I was just a guest on his podcast called The Big Thing. He said there were like some moments in the film that felt very Fast and Furious ish. And I tend to agree with him, not as far-fetched as Fast and Furious. But there's just a few moments where you're like, I don't know, Mission Impossible six, Mission Impossible Fallout was so good. And the bar was set so high on that one, that it was gonna be hard for them to live up to it with this one, but it's just, it's good. Like, I'm not gonna give you a full rating. I'm just saying it's good, but not great. If you're going in for a popcorn flick, and you're looking to just be entertained, you're gonna have a great time. So go see it when it comes out on July 12. And just be prepared to be entertained because it is highly entertaining.”

Any advice for aspiring sports/wrestling podcasters and content creators? 

“Yeah, I love getting questions like this. Because we live in a time right now, where it is possible for anyone to be a creator. If you can just pick up your phone, hit record, and you could turn that into a podcast. You could pick up your phone, hit record, boom, that's a tick tock, that's an Instagram, that's a YouTube video, and I love that. I think that it's a crowded space. And I think that the first thing you gotta do is find a way to stand out. So if you're looking to be in the sports or the wrestling space, find a way to stand out. With that said, though, find somebody who you look up to who is crushing it, and reverse engineer how they got there and what they're doing and find your way to put your own spin on it. Nobody's reinventing the wheel here. Everybody's doing a version of something that's already been done in some sort of way. But I would say find a way to be unique and be authentic. People can see right through you if you're not being authentic. So, you may have seen the tweets that I put out, and also I kind of teased this on Instagram, I'm building something out with my good friend Travis Chappell who is just a killer when it comes to content creation and podcasting. We're building something out here to help people like you who are looking to either start a podcast or start a YouTube channel. Or if you have one, and you really want to grow it and you want to be a full time content creator, we’re building something out so we can work together to help you to help give you the tools that you need to be a successful creator. So keep an eye out for that I would say in the next month. And I'm really excited about this, because it's truly a chance that we can finally work together and anybody who wants to reach out and find out more information about this kind of early, send me an email cvv@chrisvanvliet.com, or send me a DM. And I'll give you a little bit more info about it. But there's going to be an opportunity for us to work together and all be full time creators together.”

When you're doing promotional interviews, like the Chris Hemsworth one. How do you come up with topics to squeeze in so the subject is not answering the same 10 questions that they've been asked a million times?

“That's a really good question. And the thing is, you've only got like four minutes, usually. So that interview with Chris Hemsworth, is about four minutes. And you know, he's going to be asked about the action in Extraction 2, and that that interview is on, it's on the podcast, it's also on my YouTube channel, if you want to go check it out, you know, there's certain things that he's going to be asked about. And you know, there's certain talking points that are going to really help to sell the film. And I think it's just about asking a question in a way that it's never been asked before. So if you can ask a question in a different way, that will evoke a different response. And the quality of your life is the quality of the questions that you ask. So if you're not liking the answers that you're getting, whether that's in an interview, or just in life in general, start asking better questions. What I like to do for movies in particular, is I like to, like, try to find a quote, or a moment in the film that I can relate back to their personal or their professional life. And I think that that's an interesting way of being able to tie in the movie that they want to promote, and also tie in like an interesting spin on that. And of course, with Chris Hemsworth, you know, we're wrestling fans here. It's the rumours that you know, he's going to be Hulk Hogan in this film. Of course, I had to get an update on that, although the update wasn't, you know, really much, but it was an update of some sorts. So, of course, when you've got Chris Hemsworth sitting in front of you, you can ask a question like that. And I just figured, you know, let's just say I'm a fan, I'm a fan of Hulk Hogan. I'm a fan of pro-wrestling, of course, a fan of Chris Hemsworth. Let's put that all together. Let's make this film, baby. So it sounds like it may still possibly be happening.”

What is the most important thing to build a brand? 

“The most important thing to building a brand is authenticity. You gotta be you, you can't pretend to be something that you're not. And I think that it may take some time to figure out what your lane is and where you fit in. But I think that's the most important thing, and kind of piggybacking off of that, and also, just being a content creator in general is, if you want to sound authentic, and be authentic, I think you got to use to hearing yourself. Whether you're on a podcast or seeing yourself, and then also hearing yourself in a video. Because that's the biggest, that's a huge step towards becoming authentic. You think that you sound a certain way, and then you see yourself in a video and you hear yourself in a video and you're like, oh my gosh, do I really sound like that? Yeah, that is your voice, the rest of the world hears you just like that. So I think that the most important step that you need to take is like get used to being who you are. And if it takes some time, I would say just put, you know, we've all got these super computers and these cameras that live in our pocket all day. Take it out and just start to like, get used to seeing yourself on camera, just start filming videos talking right to the camera and going. Yeah, okay, I do that thing with my eye when I talk or my lip curls a little bit when I talk. So authenticity is the key.”

What is the best way to grow your professional network and build connections that last?

“An another great question about this. And this is all gonna end up tying into the thing that I'm building right now that we'll be announcing in about a month here, where you can be a full time creator and figure that out, and we can work together to see what is the best possibility for you to grow your content. But I would say to answer your question here, the best way to grow your professional network and build connections that last is lead with value. So often, people are looking at what's in it for me. And I get a lot of emails from people that are basically like, here's the thing that you can do for me, and I think it needs to be the other way around. It needs to be, here's the thing that I can do for you, is there anything that I can do to in turn help you. So I think just lead with value, lead with as much value as you possibly can. So I'll give you an example. If I was looking to have a guest on my podcast, instead of saying, like, dear so and so I have this podcast, could you come be a guest on it, which is basically saying like, hello, very important person, could you give me an hour of your time, and I mean hour of their time is obviously tremendously valuable. I would instead say, like, I have this podcast, some of my previous guests include, it gets X amount of downloads on the audio version, X amount of watches, or plays, views on YouTube, my two YouTube channels combined have 630,000 subscribers. Here's all the value of like, if you give me an hour of your time, and I know that your time is very valuable, there's a lot of things you could be filling that with. But if you were willing to give me an hour of your time, here's the exposure that I could give you in exchange for that. And that may lead to all of these other opportunities for you. So the short answer is lead with value." 

I love the term vague goals get vague results. Where do you get that from? And do you have any other motivational quotes? 

“I mean, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you know that I love quotes. And I end every episode with a quote at the very end of the podcast version of these. I love quotes, and one that I've been saying a lot recently, and I actually said it to the man himself, this is a quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger. I said this to him when I interviewed him, like a month and a bit ago, is, you either get results, or you can either have results or excuses, you can’y have both. And that one sticks out to me so much. Because that can be applied to literally anything in life. You could apply that to fitness, you know, it's results or excuses, you're gonna go to the gym or not. If you do go to the gym, you're gonna get results. If you don't go to the gym, well, you've got an excuse, but you can't have both. That could be content creation, are you going to do it or not? You're going to do it and get the results, you're not going to do it, you're gonna make an excuse to not do it. It applies to everything. So that's one quote that's really been rattling around in my head a lot lately, and hopefully one that means something to you. results or excuses. You can't have both.”

Have you ever considered stepping into the ring and having a wrestling match, or matches? 

“Yes, yes, yes, I have. In fact, when I was 16, I was a backyard wrestler. Chris Sharp was my name, sharp talking sharp walking, sharp dressing. So I was a backyard wrestler for like two years, there's videos if you want to really dig deep on the internet, you can find those. And my goal was to be a pro-wrestler. And I went to wrestling school when I was in college I want when I was 20. And I started to figure it out. If you watch that video, I mean, everyone always keys in on the last part of it where I get chopped by Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze, everything that led up to that before that I was taking bumps with them. I was locking it up. I was running the ropes, like I know the very basics from the few months that I went to wrestling school. But long story short, I was going in the middle of I think it was summer I was going in the summer right before my junior year of college. And I just felt like I was kind of at this crossroads. Wrestling school was about half an hour from where I lived when I was living with my parents that summer. But it was about an hour and a half away or close to an hour and a half away, like an hour 15 away from where I was at college. And I just kind of had this like, I had to make a decision. Was it going to be school school or a wrestling school, and I didn't want to do both. Because, speaking of quotes, I firmly believe that the man who chases two rabbits catches none. Because you can't put your full attention on both rabbits. You can't put your full attention on both careers, wrestling, or in my case, it was a Communication Studies degree. So I just kind of had to make a decision like do I focus on school or do I focus on wrestling and I chose school because I wanted to get my degree, and I knew that wrestling would always be there. And I'm fortunate now that the job is communication based with the TV show that I still do work on. Obviously podcast and content creation with YouTube and social media, but I still get to dip my toe into the wrestling world. I still get to be a ring announcer on occasion, I still get to interview some of the biggest wrestlers on the planet. And I have stepped into the ring that was about 10 years ago. You can check it out on my YouTube channel but I got involved in a match in Cleveland at prime wrestling. It was so much fun. I gave a Rock Bottom to Nicky Valentino. And I gotta say, I gotta say there's a pretty good Rock Bottom. So go check out that clip. I hit him with the Rock Bottom, the middle of the ring, a little bit of celebration and it was pretty cool. I would love to hit another Rock Bottom. Maybe I hit one every 10 years so maybe we could we get another one coming up here soon. I don't know.”

Any chance of getting an interview with Paul Heyman? 

“I would love an interview with Paul Heyman. When you look at the list of the people who I haven't had conversations with he's damn near close to the top of that list. Other people on that list include AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Kane, then there's a few others in there. Triple H would be a really good one, Vince McMahon, of course. But yeah, Paul Heyman would, I mean just look at the career that he has had, so good. And then every time you do see an interview with him, I especially love the conversations that he's had with Ariel Helwani, who is a past guest and is going to be a future guest, by the way, on Insight. When you see the interviews that they have together, it's just Paul Heyman just is not afraid to speak his mind. And also, obviously, Roman Reigns is doing an incredible job with the character work he's doing. At least a little bit of that you've got to thank Paul Heyman for. The heel turn worked, because he aligned himself with Paul Heyman and everything that's come from that the wise man and you know, him being a pretty crucial part of The Bloodline. So I'd love to have a conversation with him. We are both partners of My Bookie. So maybe there's some sort of tie in there, as we head toward SummerSlam. So I don't know."

How do you find your motivation to interview? 

“I gotta say, I'm just curious. I'm a naturally curious person. And I think that it stems from that the motivation is just like, What can I learn from this person that, you know, kind of selfishly, I can apply to my own life. That's a really big part of it. And also, like, think of the people who I've been so fortunate to be able to spend some time with. That wouldn't happen without an interview. Like I couldn't just call up Tom Cruise or Ric Flair or Chuck Liddell or Will Ospreay, well maybe Will Ospreay. But I couldn't just call up any of these people and say, Hey, do you want to have lunch for an hour? And I can just talk to you about stuff. They'd be like, Get out of here, of course not. But when you throw the interviewer in, and this goes back to the idea of like, bringing value, it changes everything. It's the same type of conversation I would have if I went out for a beer with them, but now we get to record it. They get to promote whatever it is they want, and everybody gets to hear it. So I really think that the motivation just comes from being naturally curious. So really good question there." 

What is your Mount Rushmore of wrestlers? 

“Dude, if you listen to that LA Knight interview, he rattled off his Mount Rushmore like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It was Hogan. Flair. Rock Austin, I think is what he said. And my Mount Rushmore is like very similar. And I really hadn't thought about it until I think it was five years ago. Yeah, it was five years ago almost to the day, I interviewed Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair at the same time. And I was just thinking the whole day like for me, those are two absolute so my Mount Rushmore. I think that anybody who's about my age, would have Hogan and Flair or maybe it's Hogan or Flair. You know, if you didn't watch a lot of WCW because a lot of flair stuff later on was in WCW. But I think that they would be on your Mount Rushmore. But so for me, Hogan, Flair, The Undertaker, and then it's so tough for this last spot for I go between Rock and Austin on this one but I'm gonna give it to Stone Cold Steve Austin because, like I love The Rock and it's obviously nothing against The Rock at all. You know, you know the admiration that I have for The Rock and he's always been so kind to me every time we've talked but The Rock’s wrestling career is really only like seven years, six, seven years. And I know Austin's isn't that much longer when you really think about it, but the Attitude Era owes a huge debt of gratitude to Stone Cold Steve Austin. I wouldn't be a pro-wrestling fan if it wasn't for the Austin McMahon storyline, that's the storyline that got me into wrestling. And then it was Austin you know really just elevating himself during that. And it was you know as Austin getting injured that allowed The Rock to rise up and, you know, The Rock and Triple H and everything that happened there. So for me it's Austin gets that last spot. So Hogan flair Undertaker and Austin, as not the last spot, it is just the fourth spot. So those are my those are my four people. They're so tough though because you can, there's so many different qualifiers for Mount Rushmore like, you know, best Canadian Mount Rushmore, best technical Mount Rushmore, but that's, those are my four there. And I don't see them changing anytime soon. But there's a lot of other very talented people. And that's not to say that they don't deserve a spot on your Mount Rushmore.”

What's your favourite film that most people don't know about? 

“Well, I think most people at this point know about the favorite film that they do know about, I talk about Back to the Future, great length. And that is my favourite movie of all time. I think it's a perfect film. So Back to the Future, definitely up there. I'll give you a few other ones. Like these are like, you know, I think it's Back to the Future is number one. And then it's the rest for me. Jurassic Park, certainly there. Huge Christopher Nolan fan. So I think you could really put any of his films on there. But I think in particular, probably Inception, although Interstellar, after you watch that a few times. That Matthew McConaughey scene where it comes back from the water planet, watches the video ah, gets me every time. It gets me every time. And also, by the way, I can't wait to see Oppenheimer. I really hope I get an early screening of Oppenheimer. I can't wait. I've been wanting to see that movie ever since they announced it. I recently re-watched The Town, and I think that Ben Affleck doesn't get enough respect for being an incredible director. I mean, Argo is where he won the Oscar, but The Town and Gone Baby Gone are both such great films. And then I'll give you one more here, Ex Machina. And I love the concept of Ex Machina. If you don't know anything about it, just go and watch it. Don't read about it, don't look at the trailer, just go and watch it. And it's ironic because the movie in itself is a social experiment. But watching the movie also feels like a social experiment. Because if you watch this with somebody, you'll end up having a conversation once it's over, and you'll be like, oh, man, what would you do? What should they have done? So there you go. There's there's some of my favourite films. And yeah, I hopefully can add Oppenheimer to that soon.” 

What web camera do you use for virtual interviews? 

“I'm thinking you might be asking this question because I don't know if you guys noticed or not, but over the last month, really stepped up the webcam game. I'm really proud of this actually, I’m a bit of a gear nut myself. But I stepped up my game, levelled up the game with the camera here. So I'm now using a DSLR, I was using a DSLR before but now I'm using a much better DSLR. So I'm using the Sony A74 as my camera with a Tamron 28 to 75 lens. So like a really good setup. And I just, I'm really happy because like, this is a camera that I've also been taking photos of my daughter on and been taking like family videos on this. And it's also been doubling as my web camera. And it was also the second camera in the Will Ospreay interview and the Chavo Guerrero interview. So if you look at those interviews, it's so crisp, colors are so good. The depth of field we get the blurred background behind you. But as a web camera, like it's an 11 out of 10. It's so good. And I love the Sony interface. You literally just plug it into your computer with a USB port and you plug it into the USB port and that's it. There's no software to download, there's nothing else just plug it in and your computer goes Oh, that's a web camera. So thank you for noticing. Thank you for noticing that we stepped it up here. I just will put the disclaimer out here. It's not a super cheap camera. So if you aren't In the market and you have a budget, the Sony A74 in my opinion can't be beat. And it can be used as a video camera for podcasts because it doesn't shut off at the 30 minute mark. A lot of DSLRs are, you know, it's like this weird category thing where those cameras are classified as photo cameras, so they have to shut off the video capabilities at 30 minutes, or else they'll be classified as a video camera. This camera has no recording limit, which is one of the reasons that I love it. So the Sony A74 you don't have to get the same lens that I have. But it's a really great lens.”

What is your favourite part of being a girl dad so far?

“So as I sit here and record this, my daughter Logan just turned one month old. And this month has flown by. It's been, it's crazy. And I feel like every time we wake up, or I, every time I go off to work somewhere and I come back, I feel like she's gotten so much bigger. The best part about her just just, she has these big blue eyes. And when she looks you dead in the eye, oh my gosh, it'll melt your heart. But I think the thing that I'm most excited about, my favorite part about it, is knowing the person that she's going to become. And I love that. I love that, you know, she's a month old right now, and her entire future is in front of her. And I'm so excited about that, like the amount of opportunities that she has in front of her. It's just, that's what's so exciting about me, and I'm so glad that I'm gonna be along for the ride, I'm so grateful that I get to be there to watch this journey, and also to help guide her on this journey with my wife, Rachel. And that's, that's my favourite part. And I'm also really nervous about her getting any bigger, because this is already flying by so fast, this last month, boom like that, what allowed snap that was, I think that's the thing that I'm really nervous about. So I'm trying to appreciate every moment that we have, and every day that we have. And we had tried to put those in the memory bank, that's been a really big thing. Like, we all get to do really cool special things over the course of any given month or any given year. And I think it's really important sometimes to take those moments, and to make them memories like, and I want to like to be intentional about like storing that in the memory bank. And there's been a lot of times when she's doing something, or when I don't know I'm at an event or something I can't believe I'm there. I'm about to interview so and so. And I'll just be like, let's just take a second, take a second to like, look around, take it all and take in, you know, the five senses here. And remember this moment like to actually truly committed to memory intentionally. And I've been doing that so much with Logan. And I love it. And I'm going to continue to do that.”